Several non-CNN reporters have said that the federal courthouse was being set up to receive a suspect. Their sources were senior judges in the courthouse and other officials. Something went wrong at some point. But, seriously CNN, Wolf f*cking Blitzer?

Wolf Blitzer was only "cool" when he was one of the lead characters in Gulf War: The Movie, starring Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf, George H.W. Bush, and Colin Powell as The Black Guy That Speaks So Well.

I look forward to seeing this replayed with 20/20 hindsight on a future episode of The Newsroom.

I hope something changes here but I doubt it will, the cycle seems to repeat itself every time.

- Events happens- The media trips over themselves trying to "scoop" one another with new information. Most of this is proven false and then blamed on "fog of war"- 24-48 hours passes and some influential, but fringe, players in the media begin navel gazing about how the media got it wrong and how they should do better- They never do

Nothing was worse than the media ghouls begging the doctor to describe the amputations, all the while the doctor stuck to professional medical terms such as subcutaneous injuries and refused to go into the graphic details these vermin were so craving.

They also insinuated that 'right wing extremists' were responsible, based on the the explosivce devices. Of course is just wishful thinking by CNN, and was not factually based, but it furthers their false narrative, so hey... run with it.

If CNN had sources they felt were legitimate and made an editorial error to run with them, that's a bad, bad mistake for a journalism brand to make.

But why is no one jumping all over the other media outlets that clearly reported CNN's bad info as fact. A few were at least honest enough to say 'CNN is reporting...' but many just ran with CNN's report as fact and a few even seemed to suggest they had their own sources corroborating the information.

People will eventually forget this whole media debacle. It happens every time there's a major news story, and it's forgotten every time.

What wouldn't be forgotten however, is if they missed the scoop and weren't the first to report an arrest was made. The higher ups at CNN would be outraged if they let a competitor beat them to it, so they have their news monsters report every little damned rumor as if it was a fact.

Every time Wolf steps in it, I think, "Haven't we in western New York suffered enough? The decline in manufacturing, Wide Right, blizzards, No Goal, high taxes, and now this clown 'representing' our region in the media. We've got to be due..."

Ker_Thwap:Nothing was worse than the media ghouls begging the doctor to describe the amputations, all the while the doctor stuck to professional medical terms such as subcutaneous injuries and refused to go into the graphic details these vermin were so craving.

That was pretty damn creepy. What the hell was up with all the gore porn demands? The Vancouver Sun went and published a blood soaked picture on their front page to stuff into everyone's mailbox in the morning. News websites were linking to exploded legs with anatomically detailed photos. People didn't even have to hunt through forums run by teenagers to find it. It was like "LOOK LOOK BLOOD TERROR GROSS SCARY LOOK LOOK LOOK!"

My favorite part of the coverage was when CNN was still reporting there was an arrest. They were so excited for the big reveal. Without actually coming out and saying it, they were pretty much just telling views, "Stay tuned, this is it! We're going to find out whether the bomber is white are brown!!"

"I'm Wolf Blitzer and we take you, uh, live to the street where a, uh, as you can see a troubling, harrowing ordeal where, uh, if you're just joining us, I'm Wolf Blitzer and you're watching CNN as we wait for news regarding the status of the Frisch's Big Boy sign that sustained massive damage in the, uh, tragic events in which two explosives were detonated at the, uh, Boston Marathon finish line."

WTF Indeed:Several non-CNN reporters have said that the federal courthouse was being set up to receive a suspect. Their sources were senior judges in the courthouse and other officials. Something went wrong at some point. But, seriously CNN, Wolf f*cking Blitzer?

What those reporters saw was the courthouse being searched and locked down in response to a bombthreat.

Rapmaster2000:Wolf Blitzer was only "cool" when he was one of the lead characters in Gulf War: The Movie, starring Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf, George H.W. Bush, and Colin Powell as The Black Guy That Speaks So Well.

That movie was pretty good. I just didn't care for the pointless, overlong sequel that replaced Bush with his goofy son and ruined Powell's character.

DjangoStonereaver:What those reporters saw was the courthouse being searched and locked down in response to a bombthreat.

The reporter on the Newshour last night had said he talked two senior judges before the bomb threat who said the feds asked them to set up a courtroom and an overflow courtroom because they were expecting an imminent arrest.

Mad_Radhu:Rapmaster2000: Wolf Blitzer was only "cool" when he was one of the lead characters in Gulf War: The Movie, starring Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf, George H.W. Bush, and Colin Powell as The Black Guy That Speaks So Well.

That movie was pretty good. I just didn't care for the pointless, overlong sequel that replaced Bush with his goofy son and ruined Powell's character.

My favorite part was where the Iraqis took babies out of incubators and stacked them in the hall like cordwood. It was so over-the-top evil.

FunkOut:Ker_Thwap: Nothing was worse than the media ghouls begging the doctor to describe the amputations, all the while the doctor stuck to professional medical terms such as subcutaneous injuries and refused to go into the graphic details these vermin were so craving.

That was pretty damn creepy. What the hell was up with all the gore porn demands? The Vancouver Sun went and published a blood soaked picture on their front page to stuff into everyone's mailbox in the morning. News websites were linking to exploded legs with anatomically detailed photos. People didn't even have to hunt through forums run by teenagers to find it. It was like "LOOK LOOK BLOOD TERROR GROSS SCARY LOOK LOOK LOOK!"

If it bleeds, it leads.

It sucks, but they do it because it works. As a whole, our civilization here is full of bloodthirsty mindless jerks who want blood, gore, sensationalism. Why do you think profits are up when stuff like this happens? It's not forced down anyone's throat. We revel in it. CNN got it wrong? Who cares, we ate it up, they made a killing. Fox lies? Doesn't matter, the money is shown.

We can all be holier than thou her on the Fark forums and complain about reality shows, gore porn and the fact that companies rip people off, news misleads people, journalism is too sensationalistc. The fact is, those of us who are honest in their complaints are in the very very tiny minority.

tcaptain:FunkOut: Ker_Thwap: Nothing was worse than the media ghouls begging the doctor to describe the amputations, all the while the doctor stuck to professional medical terms such as subcutaneous injuries and refused to go into the graphic details these vermin were so craving.

That was pretty damn creepy. What the hell was up with all the gore porn demands? The Vancouver Sun went and published a blood soaked picture on their front page to stuff into everyone's mailbox in the morning. News websites were linking to exploded legs with anatomically detailed photos. People didn't even have to hunt through forums run by teenagers to find it. It was like "LOOK LOOK BLOOD TERROR GROSS SCARY LOOK LOOK LOOK!"

If it bleeds, it leads.

It sucks, but they do it because it works. As a whole, our civilization here is full of bloodthirsty mindless jerks who want blood, gore, sensationalism. Why do you think profits are up when stuff like this happens? It's not forced down anyone's throat. We revel in it. CNN got it wrong? Who cares, we ate it up, they made a killing. Fox lies? Doesn't matter, the money is shown.

We can all be holier than thou her on the Fark forums and complain about reality shows, gore porn and the fact that companies rip people off, news misleads people, journalism is too sensationalistc. The fact is, those of us who are honest in their complaints are in the very very tiny minority.

It's not likely to change either.

I hate the phrase "holier than though." I'm not the remotest bit holy, I'm just expressing an opinion the same as everyone else. If my opinion makes someone feel less holy, then that's their problem. Go ahead and use the phrase 'high horse" next, I dare you!

I never complain about reality show, I only mock the people who watch them. I'm firmly in favor of corporations turning a profit. There's no excuse to be a lazy consumer in the internet age.

I hate the phrase "holier than though." I'm not the remotest bit holy, I'm just expressing an opinion the same as everyone else. If my opinion makes someone feel less holy, then that's their problem. Go ahead and use the phrase 'high horse" next, I dare you!

Perhaps "Holier than thou" (fixing my spelling, it's too early) is too strong a phrase. It wasn't aimed at anyone in particular, just a general observation. Often, we DO act smug (perhaps rightly so) because WE don't like the sensationalism, WE don't watch that much TV...ad nauseam.

Hey, if you're one of the mobs and you like the reality shows, the gore porn and the dumbing down of pretty much everything in society. More power to you. You have plenty of company.

Marisyana:Stuff like this is exactly why I get my news from the BBC and PBS Newshour's websites. Three minutes in the vicinity of CNN makes me stabby.

I had to travel for work yesterday and my coworker mentioned they found a suspect. I was kicking myself for forgetting my phone on my desk since my BBC News app ten minutes prior didn't have a damn thing about it.

Silly sensible journalists who wait for verification before running with a story.

Rapmaster2000:My favorite part was where the Iraqis took babies out of incubators and stacked them in the hall like cordwood. It was so over-the-top evil.

This was a thing?

...In fact, the most emotionally moving testimony on October 10 came from a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, known only by her first name of Nayirah. According to the Caucus, Nayirah's full name was being kept confidential to prevent Iraqi reprisals against her family in occupied Kuwait. Sobbing, she described what she had seen with her own eyes in a hospital in Kuwait City. Her written testimony was passed out in a media kit prepared by Citizens for a Free Kuwait. "I volunteered at the al-Addan hospital," Nayirah said. "While I was there, I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns, and go into the room where . . . babies were in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators, and left the babies on the cold floor to die."83

Three months passed between Nayirah's testimony and the start of the war. During those months, the story of babies torn from their incubators was repeated over and over again. President Bush told the story. It was recited as fact in Congressional testimony, on TV and radio talk shows, and at the UN Security Council. "Of all the accusations made against the dictator," MacArthur observed, "none had more impact on American public opinion than the one about Iraqi soldiers removing 312 babies from their incubators and leaving them to die on the cold hospital floors of Kuwait City."84

At the Human Rights Caucus, however, Hill & Knowlton and Congressman Lantos had failed to reveal that Nayirah was a member of the Kuwaiti Royal Family. Her father, in fact, was Saud Nasir al-Sabah, Kuwait's Ambassador to the US, who sat listening in the hearing room during her testimony. The Caucus also failed to reveal that H&K vice-president Lauri Fitz-Pegado had coached Nayirah in what even the Kuwaitis' own investigators later confirmed was false testimony.If Nayirah's outrageous lie had been exposed at the time it was told, it might have at least caused some in Congress and the news media to soberly reevaluate the extent to which they were being skillfully manipulated to support military action. Public opinion was deeply divided on Bush's Gulf policy. As late as December 1990, a New York Times/CBS News poll indicated that 48 percent of the American people wanted Bush to wait before taking any action if Iraq failed to withdraw from Kuwait by Bush's January 15 deadline.85 On January 12, the US Senate voted by a narrow, five-vote margin to support the Bush administration in a declaration of war. Given the narrowness of the vote, the babies-thrown-from-incubators story may have turned the tide in Bush's favor.

Following the war, human rights investigators attempted to confirm Nayirah's story and could find no witnesses or other evidence to support it. Amnesty International, which had fallen for the story, was forced to issue an embarrassing retraction. Nayirah herself was unavailable for comment. "This is the first allegation I've had that she was the ambassador's daughter," said Human Rights Caucus co-chair John Porter. "Yes, I think people . . . were entitled to know the source of her testimony." When journalists for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation asked Nasir al-Sabah for permission to question Nayirah about her story, the ambassador angrily refused.86

Rapmaster2000:Wolf Blitzer was only "cool" when he was one of the lead characters in Gulf War: The Movie, starring Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf, George H.W. Bush, and Colin Powell as The Black Guy That Speaks So Well.

StreetlightInTheGhetto:Rapmaster2000: My favorite part was where the Iraqis took babies out of incubators and stacked them in the hall like cordwood. It was so over-the-top evil.

This was a thing?

...

In fact, the most emotionally moving testimony on October 10 came from a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, known only by her first name of Nayirah. According to the Caucus, Nayirah's full name was being kept confidential to prevent Iraqi reprisals against her family in occupied Kuwait. Sobbing, she described what she had seen with her own eyes in a hospital in Kuwait City. Her written testimony was passed out in a media kit prepared by Citizens for a Free Kuwait. "I volunteered at the al-Addan hospital," Nayirah said. "While I was there, I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns, and go into the room where . . . babies were in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators, and left the babies on the cold floor to die."83

Three months passed between Nayirah's testimony and the start of the war. During those months, the story of babies torn from their incubators was repeated over and over again. President Bush told the story. It was recited as fact in Congressional testimony, on TV and radio talk shows, and at the UN Security Council. "Of all the accusations made against the dictator," MacArthur observed, "none had more impact on American public opinion than the one about Iraqi soldiers removing 312 babies from their incubators and leaving them to die on the cold hospital floors of Kuwait City."84

I remember it and I am ashamed to tell y'all that I farkin fell for it. Pretty hard too.